Rod-packing device



No. 62l,063. Patented Mar. l4, I899. A. w. mass.

ROD PACKING DEVICE.

(Application filed Junel, 1898 (No Model.)

W it n asses.

Inventor.

A; Attorney UNITED STATES PATENT GFFIQE.

ALFRED WV. GIBBS, OF ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA.

ROD-PACKING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 621,063, dated March 14, 1899. Application filed June 1, 1898. Serial No- 682,239. (No model.) 7

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatLALFRED W. GIBBS, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city of Altoona, in the county of Blair, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Rod-Packing Devices, of which the following is a true and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part thereof. 1

' While my invention in some of its new and useful features relates to rod-packings and stuffing-boxes in general, it more particularly relates to that class of them wherein a reciprocating rod is surrounded and ridden with a certain freedom of motion by a built-up holder for packing; and in its preferred form, by which it is hereinafter illustratively described, my said invention has a special relation to that further class of rod-packing devices wherein the rod,formed with an enlarged end or ends, requires, for the purposes of assembling and stripping, those parts of the device which meet upon it to be divided and separable.

The chief object of my invention is to provide an improved stuffingbox, one which shall not leak by reason of structural defects, and to this end to provide an improved mechanism or holder for the packing (preferably metallic) which meeting about rides the rod with tight and wear-compensating joints.

Further objects are to provide improved devices for lubricating the rod or reciprocating member with which such devices are associated in use, and in doing so to provide a definite outlet or passage of least resistance from such point within the steam-confining or equivalent fluid-under-pressure-confining elements of the combination as shall prevent the dislocation or blowing out of an outlying fibrous lubricant-distributer, such as I prefer to employ in my invention in its entirety; also, to provide animproved device for retaining a lubricant distributer or swab; also, to prevent creeping and loss of lubricant when fluid and by reason of the capillarity of close-' jointed surfaces, together with such other objects as will be apparent from this specification as a whole.

.The new and useful features of my invention will be found segregated in the concluding claims, and reference now being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, they will be founc to illustrate my invention as follows:

Figure 1 is a partially-sectional side elevation of a portion of the cylinder-head, stuffingbox, rod, and guide mechanism of a steam locomotive-engine embodying my invention in the preferred form, the rod and built-up parts thereof being shown unsectioned. The

plane of sectioned parts is vertical and passed through the boxs long axis. Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional side view of the built-up parts of said device, the rod fragment which is packed being shown unsectioned, the plane of the section also as in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a central cross-section through the lubricating device,with surrounding case or gland-breeching shown in elevation. Fig. 4 is across-section, upon line y y of Fig. 2, of details; and Fig. 5 is an end View of a preferred composite packing-follower.

In detail (see Fig. 1) 0 indicates the usual flanged projection of a locomotive-cylinders rod emerging end, and 0 the cavity or glandsocket therein.

E denotes the rod to be packed, and has upon its outer end a slotted conical enlargement E,'by which enlargement the rod is removably engaged with a corresponding conical socketa: in cross-head X. This socket is bored blind, save for a driftway m. Into this driftway an integral drive-stub e of the rodhead E projects and waits use in stripping the parts E and X from each other.

Into the muzzle of the cavity 0 (which cavity communicates to the cylinders bore by a passage 0 of sufficient diameter to admit the rod end which has to pass through it) there is inserted the tubular follower part h of the breeching or flanged packing-case H. case is held to place by nuts 75 and stud-bolts t, which, passing through its face, are fixed in the usual way in the stuffing-box 0. Between the flange h of case H and the boxface 0 an annular gasket g, being clamped, forms atight joint. The bore of case H is of irregular shape, but at all parts of its length of sufficient diameter for free passage of the enlarged rod-head E aforesaid. The muzzle end or outer bore of the case H has This a cylindrical cavity 7L2 and forms a seat for a swab-cup R, which cup, being a split ring internally chambered,has a U -shaped section. (See Figs. 2 and 3.) It is also perforated through its back with ports r and, being filled with a fibrous swab serves to distribute upon the face of the rod E,which it surrounds, substantially all such lubricant as may be fed to it by way of the oil-hole [L3, for parts to of the fibrous swab projecting into the ports 0' act to wipe off and return to the fold such portion of the said lubricant as, being fluid by reason of capillary action, tends to waste by creeping into the joints formed by the meeting faces of said swab-ring and its seat, the point of absorption being on the lines where said joints open and girdle the rod and the outlet to waste between the comparatively crude joints of a solid swab-retaining ring 5 (bolted to the face of the case 11) and said cases faceviz., the joints. Now such capillary creeping those portions of the swab which project or reach into the back of the swab-ring seat through the ports '1" prevent, and by superior affinity win back and apply to the rod lubricant otherwise going to waste, for which reason said swab and ported ring become a most economical distributer of lubricant.

An inward]y-projecting flange 7&4 forms the bottom of the swab-ring socket. The inner face 7L5 of this flange is preferably formed oblique and vanishes at its root into a cylindrical chamber h". This chamber 72, extends thence a short distance and in turn vanishes into a hollow spherical seat H, forming one member of what in packing devices of preferred sort is denominated the ball-joint.

Into this socket the ball-head g of a ball-ring G fits with a tight but swiveling joint. The back face g of ball-ring G is faced square to fit with tight joint corresponding front face a of a continuous cup or packing-holder part A. This joint is to allow the riding parts to move transverse to the line of the rod and, combined with the swiveling freedom given by the ball-joint aforesaid, to permit them to follow the most complicated rod movements, yet all, if the component parts he held properly to place, without loss of steam.

The cup part A of the packing-holder I pro vide with a central thoroughfare a for the passage of the enlarged rod end E, and concentric therewith taper-bore it, the larger end of the cavity a thus formed being placed toward the working fluid. Into the cavity a I place a snug-fitting split tubular cone-liner B B, the bore of which, where ofleast diameter, exceeds that of the rod E, so that when in place within the holder or cup ring A the split meeting faces I) I) come together with a joint the degree of tightness of which when in use is to large extent due to the wedge action of the cup A, said action being then excited by endlong forcing of the parts 13 B down the declivity of the hollow cone to under the combined forcing of the fluid under pressure and a spring-actuated follower, hereinafter described. Dowels cl, fixed in one part, as B, and dowel socket-holes d bored to register in the other, serve to aline the parts B B in assembling. Moreover, as their meeting faces I) b are formed true and disposed in radial plane it is obvious that a high degree of compression can be brought to bear on them by driving up the split parts B 3 into the cavity a But leaving this incipient recitation of the functional value of my improved packing-holder parts and returning to descriptive detail of the drawings, it will, on again referring to Fig. 2, be seen that the split and separable packing-holder parts B B upon their outer end 12 come near to and girdle the rod E. They, however, preferably not quite contact with it. Internally I fashion said parts into a feature common in packingholders-namely, abrupt and low inclined merging conecavities Z1 12 These cavities are bored out concentric to the line of the rod and have stacked in them a pile of preferably segmental and metallic packing-blocks P. These blocks, like all other parts that meet close around the rod which has the enlarged head or heads, are of course split and when released from the holder A B B separable from each other and the rod. To hold this assemblage of blocks or packing proper to place, (which is a snug steam, &c., tight fit about the rod and a similar one in their nest in the composite holder A B B,) I employ a composite follower actuated by a spring. To be well behindthe packing-blocks P this fol- -ICO lower has to come close to the rod, and as the rod has an enlarged head IE it has also to be composite. I therefore fashion the cylinder not as is usual for such devicesnamely,with cylindrical threaded screw-engaging parts but as follows: of a split follower K K, having an abutment-flange 7c and a cylindrical tubular extension 70, the whole meeting with small clearance about the rod, and of a contin uous keeper or retaining-ring L, which bein g bored to fit slidingly onto the said exten sion 7i) when so slipped on keeps the split separable parts of the former in place and to-' gether. The aperture of the ring L is of course sufficient for the passage of rod-head E. .As a device for forcing the follower toward the packing P, as well as thrusting all the joints of the rod-riding and built-up internal structure of the gland into close association, a spiral spring S abuts, one end against the back of said retaining-ring R and (with its coils compressed) the other end against the shoulder 0 ,where the gland-socket proper ends. Should some steam leak past any of the joints of this built-up packing, and whether such leak be for the lack or in spite of my above-described improvement in packing-holder devices, I furnish a duct 1), leading from the chamber 713, above alluded to, and, extending it through the walls of the case I-I, give a ready escape to the atmosphere for such steam or other fluid under pressure as has forced the passage of the joints or come by way of scores cut in the rod or packing P. For were it not for the less resistance of the vent 12 there would be, as heretofore has been the custom,a flow-out through and to the detriment of the swab. As such flow-out often resulted not only in Waste of oil and swab-packing, but even in the destruction of the swabretaining devices, the value of this branch of my invention is too obvious and material to require further enlargement.

The'foregoing description of parts has, as an indispensable incident, involved a statement of their several operations. Taken together their operation is obviously to ride the rod, lubricate it, pack it most efficiently, provide against loss of lubricant, ofier a passage of least resistance to such steam as does force the main defences, and in general facilitate both assembling and stripping acts. It may, however, be pointed out with propriety that the act of stripping the liner parts B B from their cup A is readily accomplished by tapping the outer ends of said parts B B where they appear in the rod-thoroughfare a of the cup A. A blow or two should, if they stick in the cone-cavity, readily start them. Withdrawn from the cavity a they naturally separate from the rod.

By the above-illustrated case, which is the usual one of a rod of circular cross-section, I

do not intend to limit myself to a rod of circular section only, for my device in the particular of cross-sectional form of rod is obviously as various as other rod-packing devices.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination with a stuffingbox member, as case H, said member having a chamber, as W, of a U -shaped swab-ring, said ring having a ported back,and a fibrous swab, substantially as described.

2. The combination with a stuffing-box member, as case H, said member having a chamber, as 77. of a U-shaped swab-ring, said ring having a perforated back, a fibrous or equivalent bibulous swab, and a retaining ring, as 8, adapted to hold said swab-ring, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a work-rod and the stuffing-box cavity thereof, of a rod-riding packing-holder, said holder being built up of a continuous hollow female wedge part A and of a split male wedge part B B, said latter composite part being formed with a conical bore, the least diameter of which exceeds that of the rod as and for the purposes specified.

4.. The combination with rod E having enlarged head, as E, of the continuous packing-holding cup A apertured for the passage of said rod-head and provided with conical cavity 0. the split male liner parts B B having jointed meeting faces I) b, and a packing-cavity, as b b, packing, as P, adapted to coact therewith, an abutment, as ball-ring G, for the cup A, and a follower operating to force the packing P into said cavity of the liner parts B B, substantially as described.

ALFRED \V; GIBBS.

Witnesses:

E. M. J ONES, W. F. KIESEL, Jr. 

